Hello, this is NewJeans. I think there are some Bernese people who are surprised by this sudden event. Well, I prepared this event because I wanted to share the members’ thoughts and opinions regarding this matter. .
First of all, I would like to tell you one of the reasons why I decided to do this live. Even though it hasn’t been long since the CEO was dismissed, it was very difficult to see many people who have continued to work with us suffering under unfair demands and pressure. And the fact that I had no choice but to watch such situations was very frustrating, and I was also very worried about the future of the five of us. Honestly, while preparing for the live performance, I was naturally worried about what kind of reaction there would be after the live performance.
And I’m worried about that because I think there might be some weird comments like that saying it was the CEO who ordered it. But I want to be clear about this. This is a live performance prepared because the five of us really wanted to say something. For the parts we couldn’t prepare for, we received help from directors we trust and believe in. Everyone, including the Bernese, is stepping up to help us, but I felt like we weren’t the only ones hiding behind it.
Also, it is too much of an issue for the lives of the five of us to just leave it to the adults and just keep waiting. And since this is what we are going through right now, we gained courage because we thought that it would be a healthier way to tell our stories rather than doing nothing. Ultimately, the story we’re talking about today is about Hive.
We already had a meeting with the current management and expressed our opinions there, but when we saw these things after the meeting, we didn’t feel like what we wanted was clearly conveyed and communication was blocked, so we decided to continue in this way. We prepared a live performance like this because we felt that our opinions and thoughts would not be conveyed well unless we did this.
I’m sure our employees were surprised by our announcement today because it was something they had no idea about. I think everyone watching it now will be very surprised. We had a lot of trouble deciding where to start, but since our goal is to express our opinions, we will try to make it as understandable as possible. Of course, I can’t tell you everything due to contractual issues, but I will be as honest as possible.
After it was decided to debut as New Jeans, all of our members gathered together and had enough time to get to know Naga. At the time, I was wary of the adults I worked with and had an unknown fear. It was awkward because it was the first time someone approached me with an open mind like this, but I definitely felt a difference, and of course, I gained more trust in that aspect. I know that even before our debut, there were issues with our New Jeans debut schedule and various other things.
However, I enjoyed working with the CEO, and because all of the members had the same mindset, I think we were able to prepare well and perform well so far. I think it’s natural for us to want to work with a CEO like this.
Even after our debut, the number of absurd and incomprehensible things that you are unaware of has increased. As some of you may know, private records such as videos and medical records from our trainee days were made public not long ago. I was really surprised when we first saw it. I really couldn’t understand how a company that was supposed to protect us couldn’t manage this information and leaked it. So, of course, we cannot help but feel worried that strange data or false facts about us may spread in the future.
However, we raised this issue with our parents and CEO Min, but Hive did not resolve it and took no active action. But in the meantime, the CEO was fired, and we are really at a loss as to who we can trust and rely on from now on.
So, I thought that if I didn’t say it this way, no one would know, so after much thought and decision, I found the courage to do this. I experienced something not long ago. The floor of the Hive building was the hair and makeup floor, so a lot of other artists came and went, and it was a space where a lot of other employees came and went. So one day, I was waiting alone in the hallway, and other team members and a manager passed by me and exchanged greetings. But when they came out again after a while, their manager told them to ignore me. He told me to ignore him even though he could hear and see me right in front of me. But even now, when I think about why I had to go through something like that, I don’t understand and I think it’s really absurd.
I was really shocked to hear Hani’s story. How could a team manager pass by and tell a team member to ignore something he or she did? We were subjected to such unimaginable words and attitudes, but we didn’t even acknowledge our mistake, let alone apologize.
Of course, I am worried about how many more similar incidents will happen in the future and whether I will be secretly ostracized even though there is no one to protect me. I don’t want anyone to experience something like that, but I think I can’t help but be scared that other members might also experience something like that.
And I told the new CEO, but when I saw that he tried to move on by saying that I had no evidence and that it was too late, I felt that there was no one left to protect us, and if you really don’t have the heart to think for me, then that’s it. I felt it, and I said it so honestly, but for a moment I felt like a bit of a liar. However, in the past, the New Genes people fought a lot for me, and they said so, but now the new people say they will be by my side and help me, but for months now, they have been making excuses, making excuses, and just saying that it is a problem that cannot be solved.
But since you are trying to pass it off as my fault even though I experienced something like that myself, I am worried and scared of what will happen again in the future. Of course I’m worried about my future, but what scares me most is that the work we’ve already created is also being infringed upon. I just can’t understand how they can act like this when there are clearly people in front of us who have put up a lot more of a fight than us and created our work.
Will the new executives separate producing and management? We thought it was a good approach for both parties without any complaints. CEO Min Hee-jin is no longer able to confirm everything, so how can we continue to work as usual? Also, I don’t understand the statement released by the new management team recently. If you really meant to keep your word of not interfering with our production, what happened now with director Shin Woo-seok should not have happened. We, who are the parties to the copyright and portrait rights they are talking about, don’t want it, but who on earth are they working for? And in their new statement, they keep making excuses that it is to protect us and prevent us from feeling anxious, so why? I don’t know if you’re not doing it for us or if you keep saying you’re doing it for us, but I hope you don’t cause any unnecessary problems. For the CEO as well as the directors who worked with us, things are never done for us.
In addition to the facts, there are many scary and uncomfortable details that I cannot understand based on my common sense. Of course, there are doubts about whether Hive is really a company that cares about news, and there is clear evidence. I don’t know how things will grow, so I think it would be difficult to talk about it today.
I hope you all know a little bit about how we really felt about creating this place and choosing this method. As I said before, our dream was to perform on stage with the music we wanted to do with CEO Min Hee-jin, and we worked very hard to achieve that. But now you can’t do those things, and you may not be able to achieve all your plans.
We were just trying to achieve our dreams, what did we do wrong? The CEO was fired, and within a week, I could no longer work with the director who had been with me until now. I’m so, so anxious because I don’t know what will happen to those who always work hard for us.
If you really care about us, don’t just say that you put the artists first. Please just let us pursue music that we can really rely on and that we really enjoy and like. Personally, I am so grateful to the people around me who helped me grow mentally and made me feel alive inside. We want to continue working with the people around us, but we cannot understand this situation where external forces are constantly hindering and blocking us, and I cannot understand what is for us and what is helping us grow.
I also feel so sorry and so sad that our Bernese fans, who were comforted by us and made happy memories with each other, wonder why they have to go through something like this again, and why they have to worry about this when they don’t have to. But in the meantime, the work that symbolizes the relationship between New Jeans and Bunnies has become clear, and we don’t want to lose anything else.
And I wouldn’t choose to go in that direction because that’s definitely not the direction I want the society they belong to to go. We found out about the CEO’s dismissal through an article that day. It was so sudden and something none of the members could have imagined, so honestly, it’s difficult for us.
And I felt very embarrassed, and as an artist belonging to Hive, the company’s one-sided notification made me convinced that, ah, they really don’t respect us at all. And in that confusing situation, I heard from the manager that the new CEO wanted to say hello to us. From the first thing they did to us after entering Adore, we didn’t feel any consideration for us. The new person, Jooyoung, met us and said that he was considerate of the members, but looking at the situations that have happened so far, we can see that he was just saying the truth.
In the first place, Hive couldn’t help promote New Genes a week before its comeback, but I would like to ask once again where the business was for the sake of publishing an article about the CEO’s dismissal and portraying New Genes in a bad light to the outside world. Really, really, for six months already, unnecessary and tiring stories about us and New Genes have been going on and on, even to a third party, and I feel very uncomfortable.
We still have music we want to make together and goals we want to achieve, but if things continue like this, let alone the future, the work we have made so far will lose its team color, which is the most upsetting and seems to make us helpless. This is really, really, really tiring and not good for each other. We created a space to directly express our opinions in order to stop the behavior.
I feel that the way we work now is not honest and is not the right way to do things, given what we have experienced. Please don’t disturb me any further. Please reinstate the CEO and return him to his original place, not in the current unfamiliar environment and unfamiliar people. I’m not asking you to do anything better right now. I think everyone just needs to do their job well in their respective positions. We will do our job well here too.
We hope you will listen to our request. From a human perspective, I hope you will stop harassing our CEO Min Hee-jin. Honestly, I feel so sorry for the CEO, and Hive just seems like an inhumane company. What can we learn from a company like this?
What we want is the original form where management and production, headed by CEO Min Hee-jin, are integrated. The reason I’m making this request now is because this is a way to get along without fighting the hive. If our opinions have been conveyed well, Chairman Bang, please make a wise decision to restore Hive to its original state by the 25th. Thank you for listening to our story. thank you